november sun

I’ll just start the blog with this picture because I love it so much. (Thank you, Jason.) All four of my kids enjoying some Mo Willems before bed. This is literally the stuff of my dreams.

It’s a tough world right now and there’s uncertainty about so many things but, every day, my family helps ground me in what matters most.

On Monday morning Amaya was rocking an 80’s vibe hard.

Now that it’s getting colder, or so we thought, I wanted a motivator for the kids to spend as much time as possible outside. My friend Nina and her kids have been tracking their hours outside all year and I always thought that was cool so she sent me her tracking sheet. (She’s at 827 hours as of November 6th!) I’m not quite as ambitious as Nina so we changed it to 500 hours and also have side bets on how long it will take to get to 50. First week in, thanks to the great weather, we’re already at 16.5 hrs. (Below is day 1, after the kids’ first hour.)

Racking up time during an unseasonably warm week. In fact, the kids spent most of the week getting to playgrounds. 5 of 7 days, I believe!

Gabby taught SSA how to play hangman. It’s a fun game for them to play to practice their spelling and they really liked trying to get each others’ words.

Did I put this in the blog last week? I could check, but I won’t. In the same spirit of the kids’ “About the Author” assignments, Amaya made an “All About Charlie” sheet. <3

Tuesday’s playground was Thornton Creek. Still cool enough to need jackets. That would change.

Wednesday, they were off to the playground behind Novi high school. And by “off”, I mean running as fast as they could as soon as they got there.

This week the kids worked on a “Friends” writing assignment.

Sammy: “Quinn and me like to sneak into creek at our school.”

Amaya: “Me and Maia like eating ice cream together.”

Steven: “Me and Quinn like to play ‘pizza place’. We call our pizza place ‘Domino’s’ – my favorite pizza place.’ (I love that Steven spelled “favorite” as “frafrit” because that’s exactly how he says it.)

Thursday, November 5th in MI, outside at a playground in shorts and short sleeves. Amazing.

Penni & Bobes

SSA had a science lesson this week that they absolutely loved. They were able to learn about the clouds and make this little flap card that has a “sample” of each kind of cloud and, when you lift the flap, information about it. Every other week we turn in assignments at the school and pick up new materials which allows us to easily do projects like this.

All week Steven, Sammy and Amaya have been looking to the sky to see what kind of clouds we have. And of course they’ve all picked their favorites. (Frafrits.)

SWIM! It’s a really nice part of my week, maybe because it’s the only place I go Monday- Friday lol.

Steven and Sammy are doing so well. Today Steven even asked to take a bath so he could practice putting his face in the water. I’m really proud of them both.

This week Amaya was tested to see if she’s ready for level 6! She’s not quite there yet but I truly can’t believe how far she’s come. When we started I was worried that level 5 was too advanced for her but that’s clearly not the case. What I love most is the way Amaya can articulate what she’s still working on. She’s totally focused on her goal.

Friday was so nice out that the kids at lunch outdoors! Incredible. I was even able to carve out time to join them.

Tank top. On November 6th. In Michigan. Whaaaaaat!?!?

It was so nice out that Gabby took the kids for ice cream. It’s going to cool off quickly around here but we’re not going to squander this.

All 3 kids really love online art tutorials. They can spend ages watching and drawing. Steven decided to move into the role of teacher and taught Jason how to make a surprise monster. He was a great teacher.

When Sammy has his nighttime Caribu visits with Nana, I often find images on my phone. It seems they were finding differences between the pictures. I liked his use of tally marks to keep track.

Now that SSA can tell time, they like to keep track. To help in their room, I got them this clock that projects the time onto the wall. It’s pretty awesome. I could use one in my room, too. (They also have stars on their walls at night.)

Saturday morning we made it back to the Thornton Creek playground for their class meet-up. The weather was incredible. We spent three hours here – staying long after everyone else left.

Checking that that creek that Sammy likes to “sneak” to with Quinn.

Last night we wanted another shot at Northville outdoor dining. So did everyone else in the area lol. We didn’t get a table exactly outside but we did get a booth right up against a floor to ceiling open window so it was even better, in some ways. Tons of fresh air but not quite as cool. We’re not comfortable eating indoors at restaurants yet so this might have been our last hurrah for a while.

Amaya likes to do her own hair. 🙂

Today was another incredible day. 70 degrees and sunny! We met their friend Ruxin at the playground again and this time I packed lunch so we could be sure to stay as long as we wanted. We were outdoors for another 3 hours today. It was amazing.

This picture is from my vantage point while hiding during a game of hide and seek. Steven is in the distance, counting.